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Thaddeus Wales
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Springers on Ves-Thad 423, not Vest.
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The Icemen had a release on Vest as well, Le's Play That Song/ You Got A Style Of Your Own - Vest No Vest. Very rare.
Firstly, I know Ronb usually posts these kind of topics, I’m not trying to steal his thunder, I just didn’t know what else to call the thread.
Quite a while ago there was a topic to try and trace who the Tangeers were, some of this was posted there at the time. I did a lot of sleuthing on the topic and found all sorts of other related connections.
It all started by using the names of people involved with the Tangeers release. The parts in italics are from the music press at the time, the bold italics are used to highlight the relevant people/labels/ etc., that led me forward in the search. The normal bold typed bits are my ramblings on the subject.
So from the record label we have Nick Barker, Bollen and Plato.
*NEW DEAL RECORD SERVICE CORP., 1601 Guilford Ave. (837-2774) Ronnie Bollon.
Plato Productions (Ron Bollon, Plato Theophilos) 1404 Kingsbridge Turn Crofton, Md. 2113 506 Newberry St. Joppo, Md. 21085 (301) 679-4117.
Searches for Plato Theophilus didn’t reveal anything, in fact there’s hardly anything out there about him.
Bucky Buchman, President of the Records Distributing Company in Baltimore and large supplier of Little LP's, record products and accessories, formulates f u t u r e plans with his new group the Gross National Product. Group recorded on Buckman's Guilford label, their first single, "Cover Girl." It was written by Tice Griffin of the group. Nick Barker, organist, pianist, arranger; Tice Griffin, writer, lead singer, guitarist; Jay Baker, bass player; Bob Zordich, drummer;
Bomar Productions ("Bucky" Buchman) 1815 Guilford Ave. Baltimore, Md. 21202 (301) 727-6420.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Gross-National-Product-Cover-Girl/release/5717651
The gross domestic product record has Bollon & Plato as producers.
IN PRODUCTION: Artist Richard Kipp recording "Rain." Produced by Accent, arranger is Nick Barker. Artist Freddie Keene recording "West Side" c/w "Elephant Jerk." Produced by Accent on Kaymar.
Nick Barker was working at Accent Sound in Baltimore, which is where this story really starts to take off.
https://www.discogs.com/label/955804-Accent-Sound-Ltd
I’ve never heard of any of the others, but the Bleu Lights and Mickey and his Mice proved interesting. Especially Mickey and his Mice who’s first record came out on Marti and their others on Samar.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/349324-Mickey-His-Mice
All three records had involvement from Eddie Drennon and some guy called Marty Cantine.
Y-R-S DISTRIBUTORS, INC. 3123 W. North Avenue Baltimore, Md. 21216 Ernie Burston—Pres. Marty Cantine—Promotion Roger Britt—Sales.
Now you would have thought that following the Eddie Drennon path was the way to go, but the Marty Cantine one was much more fruitful.
As with Plato earlier, Marty Cantine doesn’t seem to have very much of a web presence and I admit that I had to make an assumption to continue the search. So far we’ve got Bomar/label/productions, and the Marti, Kaymar and Samar labels as part of the story, a certain Sarah Cantine recorded on Samar, where the publishing co was Marsa. Mickey Fields of Mickey and his Mice also recorded on the Edmar label, the only release on Bomar, was published by Marbuck.
So what’s with all this “mar” business, the assumption I made was that Marty Cantine was the “mar” in all these musical ventures, not a great leap.
Marti only had a brief life, Kaymar and Edmar didn’t bear much fruit but Samar was a different story.
The people involved with the Samar recordings are like a, small selection, who’s who of the very best writers/producers/arrangers that ever entered a recording studio and some went on to be huge names in the music business. Poindexters, Richard Tee, Eddie Singleton, Bert Decoteaux, Bert Keyes, Clyde Otis. Now we all know the amount of recordings made by those guys is colossal, but how about the lesser known names.
Bob Schwartz.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/679386-Bob-Schwartz
Oddly enough the co owner of Samar records was called Bob Schwaid who also has some interesting musical connections.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/743878-Bob-Schwaid
Via Samar we get Bozart music pub., Cudda Pan music pub. and Vidalia productions all involved Johnny Brantley, who worked with jimi Hendrix, Hendrix is said to have played on Jimmy Norman’s 1st Samar single.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/570306-Johnny-Brantley?sort=year%2Casc&page=1&subtype=Production&limit=25&filter_anv=0&type=Credits
Johhny Brantley produced dozens of soul 45’s, often using songs by James Lewis, Edward Lewis and Marion Farmer. Brantley also has close, early links with Lonnie Youngblood and Billy LaMont. Lonnie Youngblood worked with Bob Schwartz at Fairmount records, Bob Schwartz was at Laurie with Ron Bollon.
LAURIE RECORDS I LA É RECORDS , Contact your Laurie Distributor or call Ron Bollon or Bob Schwartz 1- 800 -344 -8249 1- 800 -421 -1410.
So we have now come full circle. I found it fascinating that some guy, Marty Cantine could have moved in the circles and have the connections he did, without hardly ever showing up on the radar.
So who was Marty Cantine ?.
Some kind of philanthropist helping out young black music talent, a hard nosed music industry businessman or even the music business arm of the local mafia ?.
I find his anonymity a very disappointing end to the tale, so come Soul Source people, dust off those old connections, especially in the Balitimore, New Jersey and New York areas and see what we can find out !.
Here’s are a couple of other bit’s I found that didn’t really fit into this story but may be relevant.
Newark Label Bows Newark Records, a new diskery specializing in R&B and pops singles, is to be distributed by Ambassador Records of Newark, N.J. The label's debut records are by vocalist Ron Price, produced by Ron Bollon & Sam Kaufman (Kay-Gee distributors Baltimore) for Ronsam Productions, and the TNJ'S, produced by Lou Henderson.
When Scotty Miller was 12 years old and growing up in Trenton, New Jersey, he got together with a friend, Raymond Earl, and formed a band. They called themselves the Imperialistics and played at talent shows and junior high school dances. Today, nearly fifteen years later, Miller and Earl are still together as the nucleus of Instant Funk, a fast -rising band who have just released their self -titled debut album on Salsoul Records, which includes the bulleted single, "I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)." The years in between, however, have been marked by frustrations as well as triumphs. At first, Miller's and Earl's rise to the top proceeded smoothly. Miller's brother, Kim, joined the band while in high school, and the group became a nine -piece outfit known as the TNJ's. The TNJ's played club dates in New Jersey and nearby Philadelphia, establishing their reputation as a hot funk band.
There are tenuous links that suggest the TNJ’s and Tangeers may have been connected but there’s nothing concrete that I can find.
Edited by Kegsy